After intense Israeli strikes on the Khazaa and al-Fakhari neighborhoods overnight and early Wednesday, medics told Ma'an they spent the day pulling bodies from the rubble and searching for injured.

However, they said their work was impeded as Israeli forces prevented them from entering the area several times. Ambulances have still not reached some of those injured or killed by strikes on Khuzaa, the medics said.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human rights estimated on Wednesday that 81.5 percent of those killed in the Israeli offensive were civilians.

The Israeli military said in a statement that more than 60 access shafts leading to some 28 tunnels apparently belonging to Palestinian militants had been found on Wednesday.

The army said it struck over 100 sites across the Strip, "including concealed rocket launchers, terror tunnels, militant compounds, and terror activity posts located within the premises of Al-Wafa hospital, from which multiple attacks were executed against IDF forces."

Three soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants on Wednesday, bringing the total number of soldiers dead in the offensive to 31, the army said in a separate statement.

UN probe

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council launched a probe into the offensive, backing calls by the Palestinians to hold Israel to account despite fierce opposition from Israel.

The decision came after a marathon seven-hour emergency session of the top UN human rights body, where Israelis and Palestinians traded accusations over war crimes.

"What Israel is doing is a crime against humanity," said Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay also said Israel's military actions could amount to war crimes, while at the same time condemning indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas.

"There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes," Pillay told the council, citing attacks that have killed Palestinian civilians, including children.

She said Israelis also had a right to live without constant fear of rocket attacks.

In the evening on Wednesday, Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas' political bureau, said in a televised speech that Palestinian militant groups in Gaza refused to disarm.

"No can disarm the resistance," Mashaal said, speaking from Doha.

Twenty-eight foreign ministers of EU member states had on Tuesday called on Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades and other militant groups to disarm.

"We cannot accept any proposal that does not include the lifting of the siege on Gazans," Meshaal said.

"How many Israeli soldiers is Israel willing to see dead before the siege is lifted?"

The leader bemoaned the severe number of Palestinian casualties and the breakdown of the humanitarian situation in Gaza since the start of the offensive.

"Everything in Gaza is collapsing," Mashaal said. "No water, no electricity, no medicine, no fuel, no food."

He urged UN chief Ban Ki-Moon to visit Gaza to witness the effects of the onslaught firsthand.

Israel says it launched "Operation Protective Edge" in response to increased rocket fire on southern Israel in June and early July.

Militant groups in Gaza say they launched the rockets in response to Israel's military search campaign to find three missing Israeli teenagers, a campaign that left at least six Palestinians dead, dozens injured, and hundreds arrested.

AFP contributed to this report

1 ) Tibi / Tubas

24/07/2014 01:35

Unless Hamas Ends the Resistance, and seeks Peace,
Hamas will be responsible 1,400 fatalities in Gaza every month.

2 ) @ Mashaal / Resistance

24/07/2014 01:42

- Hamas' resistance involves putting Schools, Hospitals, and Women & Children, in the direct line of fire, and Hamas excels at getting them Destroyed or Killed,
and
- Israel will Never agree to "lift the Gaza siege" or blockage, while the resistance persists, since you would use ships to import tunneling machinery, and more weapons, and more sophisticated weapons,
so
* IT IS TIME TO END THE RESISTANCE AND ACCEPT PEACE !!

3 ) Maureen / Australia

24/07/2014 07:01

Obama, Kerry should be in Gaza to observe and risk their chance of surviving the Zionist murderous criimes against humanity!

4 ) Outlier / USA

24/07/2014 16:48

Blood on Hamas' hands for escalating the rockets.

5 ) Wiki / Fan

25/07/2014 00:10

..."Richard Falk wrote that under the [Dahiyah] doctrine, "the civilian infrastructure of adversaries such as Hamas or Hezbollah are treated as permissible military targets, which is not only an overt violation of the most elementary norms of the law of war and of universal morality, but an avowal of a doctrine of violence that needs to be called by its proper name: state terrorism"...

Name

Country

Comment

Characters

Note: Comments will be reviewed for appropriate content. Click here for more details.